Ways You Can Help Keep Our Community Beautiful and Get Involved

The City offers multiple ways to get involved in clean ups, beautifications, or maintaining public resources and community members are encouraged to help keep the community vibrant and healthy. Opportunities to give back include the annual Citywide Cleanup, Invasive Plant Walks, Adopt-a-Tree, Adopt-a-Drain, and Adopt-a-Site. 

“Helping to keep our City clean, vibrant and thriving truly takes a community effort,” said Mayor Lungo-Koehn. “I want to sincerely thank all those who are already participating in these programs and encourage all others to join us in giving back to the environment!” 

The annual Citywide Cleanup is on May 2 from 10am-12:30pm in several locations around the City, chosen and led by ambassadors. The City is currently looking for both ambassadors and volunteers to help pick up trash and debris to make our neighborhoods and green spaces cleaner for all to enjoy. All ambassadors will receive a free Keep Medford Beautiful t-shirt. For either level of participation, you can sign up here.  

The City has also been involved with promoting Invasive Plant Walks, aimed at giving residents the information they need to identify, safely remove, and dispose of invasive plants. Each walk focuses on an invasive plant specific to the Medford area and is hosted by Dan Bender of Wilderscaping LLC and Kim DeAndrade. To see information on upcoming walks, visit medfordma.org/events.  

With high levels of rain, precipitation and snow melt, the City’s drainage system is working hard to mitigate flooding. To help this effort, check out the Adopt-a-Drain program where participants can sign up to ensure a drain stays clear. Keeping the drains clear of debris helps to prevent streets from flooding as it ensures that water can flow freely. See which drains are available to adopt at medford.mysticdrains.org/. 

Similarly, the Adopt-a-Site program enlists the support of businesses, civic groups, institutions, and individuals to serve as sponsors for public locations around Medford. The goal of this program is to enhance and beautify public sites, traffic islands, and other green spaces throughout the City. Promotional signage will be displayed at the site the group or individual is adopting. Visit this form to learn more, see available locations, and sign up. 

As the City works to improve its tree canopy, the Forestry Department needs your help to ensure new trees are healthy and thriving by watering them for the first three years of their lives. The Adopt-a-Tree program entails filling a tree watering bag every week or every other week from May to October, removing the bag for the winter, returning it for the spring, and keeping the area around the tree free of weeds. To adopt your own tree, fill out the form at https://www.treesmedford.org/adopts.